Today's Daily Lesson comes from Romans chapter 14 verses 1 through 4:
Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions.2Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables.3Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. 4Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall.
We've all been in that Bible study in which somebody (they could be male or female) is there solely to determine (the say "discern") who is and who is not really living a genuinely Christian faith. Usually the discussion is over something historically divisive like the authority of the Pope or the meaning of the Lord's Supper, though in recent years now the subject of sex and sexual orientation comes up again and again. Pretty soon the discussion turns to argument and the argument leads to people just wanting to get the heck out of Dodge. Before long, people just get fed up with petty bickering -- a room full of people ready to give their lifeblood on a one inch cross, but never doing a thing to help carry the real cross of those who struggle or suffer. Twelve Bible studies a week plus Sunday School and all that's ever done in Jesus' name is the bickering.
That's bad religion.
"Who are you to pass judgment?" Paul asks. Or as Pope Francis himself phrased it, "Who am I to judge?"
We will each and all stand before our own Master and Lord. He will be the one to judge the hearts of his servants. And he really doesn't need my help -- especially when it's no help at all.
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